Gordon and Dorothy Gartrell - May 2013 Update

Dear Friends,

Holy Week celebration at the Sacramenta congregation was wonderful. The adults participated in special services. The children helped make a bulletin board with the important events of Holy Week, created a variety of artwork, and sang at the Easter worship service. After the worship service, we celebrated the fifth anniversary of the congregation with cake and soft drinks.

It's enriching to see how the children understand the importance of the events of Holy Week. The sad part is that the neighborhood had an Easter party at the same time as the worship service. The children sang at the beginning of worship, but then all but five quickly left for the party. Unfortunately the neighborhood has no respect for the church. The adults send their children when it's convenient.

The big news is that we're being transferred to a new location. By the end of April we will be working in a small, rural town in the state of Minas Gerais, a large state northwest of Rio de Janeiro. We will be working in Pains, which has about 8,500 people. It is an agricultural area and specializes in the mining of limestone. There is a pastor there, but she has gone through some difficult experiences lately, plus works full-time. We don't know anything else about the church. We will also be responsible for worship at some rural preaching points. We'll learn more about our work assignment when we visit Pains and meet the pastor and church folks. We have become friends with the pastor and the leader of the Presbytery on Facebook and are communicating regularly, plus we've seen the church building on Google Earth. Computers are amazing! Both of us are very excited about being moved to Pains where there is a core group of people we can work with, training folks as the needs arise. We'll let you know more about our work and our new snail mail address. Our email address will be the same: dorothyandgordongartrell@gmail.com.

We have until April 23rd to be out of the house, and we plan to fly out early on the 24th. Before that date, we plan to go to the wedding of a young man we nurtured as an adolescent and see friends that we worked with from 1995-1999. We also have to find a moving company, pack, paint the house, and say good-bye to folks. It will be a busy few weeks but with a bright horizon in front of us.